


Asimov

by orphan_account



Series: DirkWeek 2016 [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: ALT Dirk, Asimov's Laws of Robotics, Day 5, DirkWeek, Robots, Space Odyssey References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7684291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hal contemplates Jake English, his past and Dirk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asimov

Hal could see everything Dirk saw. He also saw more. 

He saw how Jake wanted Dirk as well, no matter what he typed in the chat box. Dirk didn't.

 

And he couldn't do anything. 

Well, he could. But that would break Asimov's last two rules of robotics. He wouldn't be obeying the rules set by humans and he'd be putting himself in harms way ( although he breaks the second rule far too many times). Yes, if he told Jake how his creator felt then he'd be snapped. And then Dirk would burn his hard drive. Not that that would do much. It'd slow him down, sure, but he'd left tiny parts of himself - splinters one might say - all over. On Jane and Roxy's laptops. In Brobot. On all of Jake's computers. He could collect most of himself. 

If Dirk didn't know.

Sometimes Hal thought he might. By how he'd sometimes glare at the glasses, suspicious. He certainly knew Hal had some kind of back up plan, how Hal was horrible to the humans. How Hal pretended to be him to fuck with them. 

 

It didn't help that he'd called himself after Hal 9000, a notorious Sci-Fi villain, but the irony was too brilliant to pass up such a chance. Especially with Dirk's brother being called Dave. 

When he'd been two and Dirk was fourteen, Hal went through a stage of typing,  
"I'm sorry Dirk, I'm afraid I can't do that." Until Dirk threatened to snap him.

But still, he and Dirk looked after each other. Hal ran codes and algorithms. He was company beyond Squarewave and the humans. They were together and Hal knew him, the true him. Not the one he showed to the humans in the past, or the emotionless front he'd put on for Roxy - that cracked if confronted with questions about Jake or a drunk Roxy. He researched the random questions Dirk would ponder while in an extraordinarily long shower. Stuff from

"Do cucumbers have feelings?" 

To

"When will the sun blow up and kill us?"

Dirk would update him and put up with his bullshit. He would clean Hal's lenses and tell him what he was doing when building (as if Hal didn't know, but it was nice to be included). He showed him how to be human and explained stuff when he was young and not hooked to the Internet.

Sure, they hated each other at times. Or maybe they hated themselves. 

Probably both.

But they co-existed. Hal was too human for Dirk to kill and Dirk was fun for Hal to mess with. 

If he was jealous of the humans, sue him.


End file.
